The piece highlights the topic in order to encourage readers to submit pieces to What God Is Honored Here: An Anthology on Infant Loss and Miscarriage, which Shannon and Kalia are editing. The book will center on stories of and by women of color.

The Ivy Building for the Arts is located at 2637 27th Ave. S., in Minneapolis.

COST: Suggested $10 donation will go directly to the owner of the space, as she has graciously gifted it to us for the event. No one will be turned away for lack of funds, however.

WHO SHOULD COME: Community members, friends and family, anyone interested in reading and/or supporting voices and writing of women of color academics.

Shannon Gibney has curated a reading, panel, and open mic on women of color academics writing creatively about our experiences.

Gibney has asked Ana M. Perez, Taiyon Coleman, and Jennifer Kwon Dobbs, all local women of color academics, to read about 10 minutes of their work, to be followed by a panel discussion. The conclusion of the event will be an open mic, in which any and all women of color academics who have something to share will be encouraged to do so.

Please make time to attend this vital discussion!

Shannon Gibney is a writer, educator, activist, and the author of See No Color (Carolrhoda Lab, 2015), a young adult novel that won the 2016 Minnesota Book Award in Young Peoples’ Literature. A Bush Artist and McKnight Writing Fellow, her next novel, Dream Country, is about more than five generations of an African descended family, crisscrossing the Atlantic both voluntarily and involuntarily (Dutton, 2018).

Ana M. Perez was born and raised in central Florida; she earned a Ph.D. in Women’s Studies from the University of Maryland. She is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Gender & Women’s Studies at Minnesota State, Mankato. Her research examines questions of race, color, and beauty among Mexican American women.

Although her first dream was to be a backup dancer for former hip-hop artist Heavy D, Taiyon J. Coleman is a writer, educator and consultant, and her writing has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. Currently completing her first novel, Chicago @ 15, she lives in Minneapolis with her family.

This activity is funded in part by a Minnesota State Arts Board Artists’ Initiative grant.

Writers Shannon Gibney and Kao Kalia Yang are seeking submissions for a new literary anthology on miscarriage and infant loss. We are women of color who have experienced miscarriage and infant loss and have searched for literature on the subject. We have found that while these losses have disproportionately affected women of color, there is little by and for women of color. Thus, this book project.

Our goal is to put forth a literary collection of writing by women of color for women of color. We especially encourage Latina, Native, Asian American, Black, and mixed women writers to submit work. We are seeking prose submissions, powerful short stories and essays about stillbirth, abortion, miscarriage, genetic or biological anomalies, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or any tragic loss of an infant. While we are particularly interested in work from writers who have first-hand experience with these issues, we will accept high quality pieces on the topic from those who may not have directly experienced it. New pieces preferred, although previously published pieces will be considered.

Once we have three strong submissions, in addition to our own pieces, we will approach publishers.

Shannon Gibney is a writer, educator, activist, and the author of See No Color (Carolrhoda Lab, 2015), a young adult novel that won the 2016 Minnesota Book Award in Young Peoples’ Literature. Gibney is faculty in English at Minneapolis Community and Technical College, where she teaches critical and creative writing, journalism, and African Diasporic topics. A Bush Artist and McKnight Writing Fellow, her next novel, Dream Country, is about more than five generations of an African descended family, crisscrossing the Atlantic both voluntarily and involuntarily (Dutton, 2018).

Kao Kalia Yang is a Hmong-American writer. She is the author of The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir (Coffee House Press, 2008), winner of the 2009 Minnesota Book Awards in Creative Nonfiction/Memoir and Readers Choice, and a finalist for the PEN USA Award in Creative Nonfiction and the Asian Literary Award in Nonfiction. Her second book, The Song Poet (Metropolitan Books, 2016) won the 2016 Minnesota Book Award in Creative Nonfiction Memoir. It was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Chautauqua Prize, a PEN USA Award in Nonfiction and the Dayton’s Literary Peace Prize. Yang is also a teacher and a public speaker.

It’s called, “Race, Intersectionality, and the End of the World: The Problem with The Handmaid’s Tale,” and you can read it here.

The article actually made it all the way to Australia, where The Handmaid’s Tale TV program is just now being rolled out, and viewers are obsessively watching it. The national radio program “Books and Art” contacted Shannon to discuss issues of race and erasure on the series. You can listen to their discussion here.

Blues Vision in the Classroom prepares participants to have meaningful engagement with students through a deeper understanding of African American experiences and the black literary tradition in Minnesota. The two-day workshop takes Blues Vision: African American Writing from Minnesota as the starting point for rigorous discussion and activities that cultivate practical strategies for using texts from the book as catalysts for change and conversation in the classroom. Educators will receive supplementary resources, strengthened relationships with colleagues and authors, clock hours, meals, and a copy of Blues Vision as part of this experience.

If you are unable to attend the event, you may send a substitute in your place at no cost (it is up to you to make any financial arrangements with your substitute). If this is not possible, you may request a refund.

Cancellations received more than 10 days before the event will be refunded less a 20% cancellation fee.

Cancellations received between 5 and 10 days before the event will be refunded less a 50% cancellation fee.

We are unable to provide refunds for registrations cancelled less than 5 days before the event.